So basically the democrats gave up on everything. Awesome.
Well, it's kind of a gamble for the Dems, Antonio. Just going on recent Congressional estimates, if the Bush tax cuts on the top 2% were allowed to expire for ten years after 2012, that would generate an estimated $690 billion in revenue in that time. Add to that the estimated revenue from the estate tax reform the Democrats want to see enacted (I assume Lincoln-Kyle is the proposal they want), that would bring in an estimated $91 billion over the next decade. So, putting those two provisions in place would raise an estimated $781 billion. Now, from the estimates coming out of the Gang of Six proposal, adjusting the tax brackets, ending deductions, closing loopholes and broadening the tax base would bring in about $1.2 trillion over the next decade. So, the Gang of Six line here is that, doing things there way, the government will over the next decade will raise a little over $400 billion more than the tax increases the Democrats presently favor, and so their plan is a better deal.
Now, of course, this whole argument is based on estimates of revenue coming from corporations given a certain rate of economic growth. If that rate of economic growth is not met, obviously the revenues coming in will be less. But, the fundamental presumption of the whole argument is that, if we leave top marginal rates where they are now, even though businesses and corporations nominally owe 35% of their income in taxes to the feds, given all the deductions and loopholes they can now take advantage of, they actually pay a significant amount less than that, maybe around 23% or so. In that sense, if you push down the marginal tax rates but close the loopholes, you'll actually make more tax revenue than businesses and corporations are presently paying. But, once again, that assumes a certain level of economic growth, and we don't know what that will be in the future.
The whole deal is a crapshoot, aided and abetted by narratives spun from different projections. But, that's not unusual, since making federal budgets and experimenting with different tools to promote economic growth every year is a crapshoot anyway.
